Check your Gmail account for potential breach

Simple tips to avoid problems if your Gmail account has been hacked (Thanks to Farhan for letting me steal this appropriate image.)

This time, it’s 5,000,000 Gmail accounts that were compromised. Login information — email address/usernames & passwords have been posted on a Russian security forum — which means they are no longer secure.

Perhaps the people who should worry the most are those who use the same password for Gmail as they do for other accounts — because it would be easy to replicate your login for those other accounts.

Another way that you may be at risk is if somebody hacks into your Gmail account; then goes to your other accounts and does a password reset, which would send the new password to your Gmail account, where they can get it, change the account’s password and email of record. That would lock you out and give them the keys to the kingdom in your other account. So even if you don’t use the same password for multiple accounts, if your email address is one of the 5 million, you’re still at risk.

This is a good time for a reminder:

* Don’t use the same password for multiple accounts

* When possible, use 2 step verification on accounts that let you do it